The above will be left to the decision of competent judges to be appointed by a committee of the American Institute. The subject was subsequently referred by the Institute to the Board of Managers; by whom unwearied pains were taken to obtain the services of competent gentlemen to serve as Judges, which eventually resulted in the appointment of those who have signed the following To John A. Bunting, Esq., REPORT. Chairman of Board of Managers. The undersigned, a committee appointed by the American Institute, in conformity with the foregoing conditions, for the distribution of premiums offered by F. M. Ray, Esq., for the best method of preventing accidents and promoting safety and comfort on railroads, report: That during the continuance of the fair of the American Institute, held in this city in October last, they critically examined the great number of inventions offered for competition, and selected from each class, such as, in their judgment, were entitled to the greatest consideration. A final selection and decision was, however, postponed, with the hope of obtaining the aid of actual experiment on some of the untried inventions. Since then the private occupations of the members of the committee have been such, that it has been a matter of great difficulty to get a sufficient number together to make a report, and it has consequently been delayed, very much beyond the wishes of all concerned. In regard to the two first premiums offered of "$1,500 for the best invention for preventing loss of life from collisions and from the breaking of axies and wheels," and "$800 for the best method of excluding dust from cars when in motion," we regret to say, that although there were many very ingenious and highly creditable inventions offered, yet from doubts of their utility in actual service, and in the absence of sufficient actual experiment to es tablish their merits, we do not feel prepared to recommend any one of them for adoption into general use, according to the tenor of the conditions of award. Your committee can, therefore, under the existing circumstances, make no award of the two first prizes of $1,500 and $800 each. The railroad brake exhibited by Mr. T. A. Stevens, of Burlington, Vt., (entry No. 1,407), best combines, in our opinion, the elements of efficiency, simplicity and cheapness, as well as general adaptation to railroad purposes. We therefore award to it the third premium of $100. Of the night seats exhibited, we have selected that of Samuel Hickox, of Buffalo, N. Y., (entry No. 303), as the best, under all circumstances, that we have seen. It answers well the purposes of either a day or night seat; it is not cumbersome or complicated, is free from most of the ordinary objections of night seats, and can be made at a very trifling increase of cost over the ordinary seat. We therefore award to it the fourth prize of $300. GEORGE STARK, MADISON SLOAT, New-York, March 15, 1853. Judges. Report on the large Oxen, owned by G. F. Hastings. The committee appointed by the American Institute, at the request of Mr. G. F. Hastings, to examine a yoke of oxen of extraordinary size, belonging to him, and now in the city of NewYork, submit the following report: That in discharging the duty assigned them, they have examined with care the oxen alluded to, and find them in regard to size, flesh and symmetry of form, truly of an extraordinary character. Various testimonials emanating from creditable sources, were also submitted to your committee, among which were the proceedings of the Rensselaer co. Agricultural society, the proceedings of the supervisors of Rensselaer co. at Troy, and also of the farmers and stock raisers of Washington co., together with testimonials from gentlemen of undoubted character, speaking of them in the highest terms of praise. The oxen were bred in Hoosick, Rensselaer co. by Mr. Wm. M. Paddock, were worked and fattened by Mr. John Lee of Washington co., and are now owned by Mr. G. F. Hastings of the town of Jackson, Washington co. Their dams were sisters, they were both dropped on the same day, in the same yard, grew and worked together until they were five and a half years old, and were seven years old in the spring of 1852. Their treatment while worked was of the usual kind; since which they have been fed on corn ground with the cob, hay, roots, and occasionally for a change on oats and corn ground together. They have uniformly been in good health, and are now growing and fattening as rapidly as can be expected for cattle of their age. It is the opinion of persons competent to judge, that they are now capable of improving largely in their weight. Mr. Hastings states to us that they have not been weighed since they were four and a half years old, at which time they weighed between fifty and fifty five hundred pounds, and were then in nothing more than common working order. The reason given by Mr. Hastings for not stating their present weight is, that while they are on exhibition he prefers leaving that to the conjecture of those who may examine them, as he considers, to use his own words, "That the person telling the first story, stands no chance." Pedigree of the oxen, Amazon and Tornado. Bred by Wm. M. Paddock, of Hoosick, N, Y; fattened by John Lee of Cambridge, N. Y; sired by a bull kept and owned by R. Gale of Hoosick, whose sire was "Young Nelson" by the bull "Nelson," which was a short horn Durham, imported from England by M. Bullock of Albany, for pedigree of which see English herd book. Their dams were descended in a direct line from the Teeswater breed, imported by Cadwallader D. Colden, and bred by him. But owing to the careless manner that farmers have been in the habit of keeping their cattle, there can be no correct pedigree on this side made out. Their sires were full or pure breed of the above named stock, and their dams half blood, the remaining part native. The above are the facts as near as they can be made out. ROBERT S. LIVINGSTON, GEORGE DICKEY, THOMAS F. DE VOE, THOMAS BELL, A. CHANDLER, HENRY MEIGS. Committee. GENERAL JEREMIAH JOHNSON. We have placed at the commencement of this volume, a portrait of the late venerable chairman of our Board of Agriculture. He was well known to most of our members, and very few among those who were in the habit of meeting him at the Institute will be likely soon to lose a recollection of his cheerful countenance, the urbanity of his manners, or the earnestness with which he engaged in the subjects under consideration. General Johnson descended from a purely Dutch ancestry, his immediate progenitors being among the earliest settlers of Long Island. Jeremias Remsen, son of Rem Jansen, to whom the General was nearly related, was born Sept. 10, 1675, and purchased the farm at the Wallabout, L. I., in 1694. On this farm General Johnson was born. It continued in the Remsen family for many years. Jeremiah Remsen, who married Jane, daughter of Martin R. Schenck, died without issue, Sept. 4, 1777, at the age of 63, and left the family estate to Barnet Johnson, the father of Jeremiah, who is the subject of this notice. Gen. Johnson had always lived on the same farm, and after an active, energetic and eventful life of 87 years duration, died on the place where he was born, and on the land which was owned and cultivated by his ancestors and himself, through the continuance of several generations. The house in which he died was built by himself in 1800. General Johnson was familiar with many of the most thrilling events of our revolutionary war. Living on the shore of Wallabout bay, in view of the head quarters of the British forces, he daily saw the memorable prison ships as they lay moored before him, and also saw many of the bodies of the 14,000 martyrs, brought from these ships and slightly buried upon the beach[Assembly No. 133.] 6 |